Source-induced optical noise in polarization measurements

Formalism is derived for the autocovariance of the noise induced by a source of general statistics, in measurements of the Stokes vector at the output of an optical medium. The autocovariance is given in terms of the source statistics and the medium transfer properties. Specific results and an experimental demonstration are provided for a polarized laser source. The results establish phase-noise-related bounds to the errors in polarization measurements with a continuous-wave laser source